The bigger picture for young people’s services in London following the spending review and the development of the big society agenda

What does Big Society mean, and how can we make it work for us? The Guiding principles of Big Society (8) – drawn from Big Society (BS) documentation (thanks to DofE) – there is no set of rules – so rather than feeling unsupported and vague, it’s up to us to make it what we want, and to make it work for us. • participation• enterprise• local democracy• contribution to communities• volunteering• localisation• leadership• partnerships

These are right up our street! We are not starting with prescriptive services; there are no specific outcomes to meet, unless they are being decided locally, so we need to think about what our young people want to do/engage with, and how we can demonstrate that it meets BS principles. Useful activity is for you to go back and look at what you do/what your yp want to do, under these headings. You’ll probably find you’re really well placed already.

This still doesn’t guarantee funding – it depends who we’re looking to to fund things – but it also gives us the flexibility to try new ways of working, particularly around social enterprise models (visit young enterprise London – www.yelondon.com; and for staff, try social enterprise London – www.sel.org, from where you can download guidance on forming social enterprises). YP have lots of experience and enthusiasm for fundraising – we need to maximise this. There is no sympathy with the cry of ‘if we don’t get funding we can’t run our projects/we’ll have to close. There’ll be a big shrug and a ‘so what?’ It’s key that you can answer the ‘so what’ question, and turn it into ‘if we don’t get funded then these are the outcomes for young people and their communities that will be lost, with the following results’. Only you and the young people can define these for your areas.

Major funding programmes, e.g. BIG’s Youth in Focus (closes30th) and LDA/ESF funding for NEET-EET, are huge sums and have a requirement for collaboration on a large scale within a very few contracts led by big players. This pattern is becoming the norm for other funds, as more organisations are competing for smaller pots; the expectation is that complementary orgs will collaborate and take on different roles within a partnership, rather than compete. This is

common-sense and practical, but necessitates a new way of thinking, and partnerships take time to build and manage properly.

Otherwise, the main national sources of funding for community activities remain:Young Roots - £3000 to 25,000 – a grant programme designed to engage young people aged 13-25 with their heritage. Young Roots projects stem directly from the interest and ideas of young people, who are supported by youth and heritage organisations to develop skills, build confidence, and connect with their local communities.

Awards for All (BIG) is a simple small grants scheme making awards of between £300 and £10,000, to help improve local communities and the lives of people most in need. You can apply if you are a not-for-profit group (including social enterprises), or you are a parish or town council, school or health body, and you can spend the grant within one year. The outcomes for AFA should be People have better chances in life - with better access to training

and development to improve their life skills. Stronger communities - with more active citizens working together

to tackle their problems. Improved rural and urban environments - which communities are

better able to access and enjoy. Healthier and more active people and communities.

Co-operative Community fundTo be successful, a group must: carry out positive work in the community; address a community issue; provide a good long-term benefit to

the community; support co-operative values and principles; ideally be innovative in its approach.

to apply for funding a group must be either a community, self-help or voluntary group; a charity; or a local branch of a national charity. Groups which use their surplus for the benefit of a business or individuals are excluded from The Fund.

Other sources of funding – national, regional and local – are available in the funding section of PYL’s website, if you’re a member (you’ll need to log in – contact Rachael at Rachael@pyl.org.uk if you’ve forgotten or never had a log in), as well as weekly through our update email.

Conclusion: The irony of BS, in emphasising localism and devolution, is that it’s more important now than ever to be linked in to other organisations and to work in partnerships and collaborate in a properly managed way. We must not let localism result in fragmentation, and we must take control of BS and make it work for us.